The Silver Swan - Orlando Gibbons

So it seems yesterday's choice of Thomas Weelkes' setting of "Hosanna to the Son of David" was significantly downvoted in favour of that by Orlando Gibbons'! Thing is... I had already planned to write about Gibbons today, so Weelkes was the natural choice for Palm Sunday!

Orlando Gibbons was appointed a gentleman of the Chapel Royal by King James I around May of 1603 and a senior organist by 1605. By 1606 he had graduated from King's College, Cambridge with a Bachelor of Music and received an honorary Doctor of Music from Oxford in May of 1622. In 1623  he was appointed organist at Westminster Abbey, a position which he held for 2 years until his death on the June 5th, 1625.

Due to his untimely death Gibbons was not such a prolific composer as his (older) contemporary William Byrd, but he still managed to produce many secular and sacred polyphonic vocal works, including consort songs, services, motets, more than 40 full anthems and verse anthems, a set of 20 madrigals as well as at least 20 keyboard works and various instrumental ensemble pieces including nearly 30 fantasies for viols. his most famous works are "This is the Record of John", "O Clap your Hands Together" and "The Silver Swan".

Gibbons was a key transitional figure in the early seventeenth century, bridging the later Renaissance to early Baroque eras. Dubbed by the composer Frederick Ouseley as "the English Palestrina" and many believed he paved the way to the new era of music.

Music
The Silver Swan is a famous and much loved madrigal which presents the legend that swans sing only just before their deaths. The words might be Gibbons creation or more likely, that of his sponsor Sir Christopher Hatton . Whilst not "sacred", it is a hauntingly beautiful piece deserving of inclusion here!

It's a beautiful piece, and there are many recordings online. My favourite is the one below by The Gesualdo Six.  (We tried to record our own at home but are missing a reliable bass part!!) 

The score can be downloaded from Choral Wiki here.

The Silver Swan who, living, had no note, 

When death approach'd, unlock'd her silent throat. 

Leaning her breast against the reedy shore, 

Thus sung her first and last, And sung no more: 

"Farewell all joys, O death come close mine eyes. 

More geese than swans now live, more fools than wise."

Herbert Sumsion

Herbert Whitton Sumsion CBE (14 January 1899 – 11 August 1995) was an English musician who was organist of Gloucester Cathedral from 1928 to 1967. He is perhaps less well known than but had close friendships with his contemporaries Edward Elgar, Herbert Howells, Gerald Finzi, and Ralph Vaughan Williams, all major figures in England's 20th-century musical renaissance. Sumsion is a composer whose music we come across frequently in our choir, but who has perhaps not been given the recognition he deserves.

Biography

Sumsion became a probationer at Gloucester in the cathedral choir under the direction of Herbert Brewer, singing with them until 1914. His treble voice broke late, at 15, after which he became an "articled' pupil to Brewer, a position which gave a three-year apprenticeship in organ, choral direction, and music theory. As one of Brewer's articled pupils Sumsion was following in the footsteps of his slightly older contemporaries, Herbert Howells and Ivor Gurney. Sumsion passed the Associateship exam of the Royal College of Organists in 1915, and in July 1916 joined Howells in passing the Fellowship exam; though he was only 17, Sumsion was awarded the Turpin prize for the second-highest marks in the practical component, a phenomenal achievement.

Sumsion spent time in the trenches of Flanders 1917-1918, returning to Gloucester in 1919 as assistant organist to Brewer. On 1 March 1928, Herbert Brewer died suddenly of a heart attack, leaving the post of organist at Gloucester vacant only a few months before the cathedral was to host the Three Choirs Festival, which Sumsion had already had involvement with. Having gained a music degree at Durham Sumsion had been due to take up the post of organist at Coventry cathedral, but Brewer had been keen Sumsion succeed him. Sumsion returned to Gloucester as organist and took up leadership of the Three Choirs Festival. His conducting skill was frequently remarked upon, and his leadership of the Festival applauded. Following the 1928 Festival Elgar made his frequently quoted pun:-

‘What at the beginning of the week was assumption has now become a certainty.’

Music

Although Sumsion is known primarily as a cathedral musician, his professional career spanned more than 60 years and encompassed composing, conducting, performing, accompanying, and teaching. His compositions include works for choir and organ, as well as lesser-known chamber and orchestral works. We were due to sing his Communion Service in F on Maundy Thursday, sections of it are included below. I particularly like the Sanctus, perfect for an introspective, reflective service celebrating the Last Supper and I have fond memories of singing it.

Tallis - Salvator Mundi

As our choir begins to rehearse apart and come together online, I thought this might be helpful. We will be recording Tallis' "Salvator Mundi" individually soon, before submitting to produce a multi-tracked finished result.

Thomas Tallis (c. 1505 - 23rd Nov 1585) is considered to be one of England's greatest composers. Little is known about his early life, although there is a suggestion that he was a child of the Chapel Royal, which he joined as an adult. Born at the end of Henry VII's reign his life spanned a period of enormous change in music and worship in England.  What makes Tallis so unique is the way he avoided the religious controversies that raged around him throughout his service to successive monarchs. Like William Byrd he remained an "unreformed Roman Catholic" but was capable of switching the style of his compositions to suit the different monarchs' vastly different demands. Tallis was one of the first church musicians to compose anthems in English after the Anglican liturgy was reformed under Edward VI, switching back to Latin to compose major works such as Gaude gloriosa Dei Mater under Mary when she overturned the reforms of the preceding decades. He found favour with both Queen Mary I and her protestant sister Elizabeth I, and composed in Latin, English, French and Italian.

Posthumous portrait by Gerard Vandergucht

In 1575, Queen Elizabeth granted Tallis and William Byrd a 21-year monopoly for polyphonic music and a patent to print and publish music, which was one of the first arrangements of that type in the country. Tallis had exclusive rights to print any music in any language, and he and Byrd were the only ones allowed to use the paper that was used in printing music. Tallis' original polyphony ( two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody) was groundbreaking at the time, and not initially popular.  As Calvinism gained favour in England polyphony was discouraged unless the words were clear - and in the vernacular. Homophonic music (where one main part is supported by one or more additional strands of complimentary parts) became the norm after the Reformation, Tallis' motet "If ye love me" is an excellent example of this.  This period also saw the rise of the verse anthem for this reason, as the Word of God took priority in church music.

Salvator Mundi
Tallis persisted in writing polyphony addition to his more widely accepted homophonic compositions, and Salvator Mundi was first published in 1575. You can download a PDF here on Choral Wiki, although the music is reproduced on the YouTube recording below. I highly recommend subscribing to Morphthing1's YouTube channel, I have found most of our repertoire on there and used it for practise for years! Scroll down to find the links for isolated parts for rehearsal!


 

Alto 1 part is available here
Alto 2 part is available here
The Tenor part is available here
and the Bass part here

Update :- here is our choir's recording for Good Friday:-

Passiontide - St Matthew Passion BWV 244

This Sunday, 29th March, is Passion Sunday. Passiontide is the name for the last two weeks of Lent, beginning on the Fifth Sunday of Lent and ending on Holy Saturday. The second Sunday in Passiontide is Palm Sunday which this year (2020) is Sunday 5th April.

Ezekiel 37.1-14 "The valley of dry bones: "I will put my spirit in you, and you shall live" is a reminder that in this bleak time we can count on God to sustain us. In the Old Testament the dry bones represent the people of Israel, and Ezekiel's vision brings assurance of their restoration. The raising of Lazarus is Jesus' sign of this restoration in the New Testament, life out of death at its most dramatic. At this time of great trial for humanity Passiontide has perhaps even greater significance for us all.

Psalm 130 "Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord - hear my voice!" is also worth reading.

Music for Passiontide
There has been a significant volume of sacred music composed for Passiontide, not least Bach's "St Matthew Passion", which was due to be performed next weekend in our church.

Below is St. Matthew Passion on YouTube licensed by Sony.
St Matthew Passion - Matthäus-Passion BWV 244 | (Complete) (Full Concert) (J. S. Bach)


and there is further info and many links and downloads to sections of it here on Choral Wiki.

From Youtube:-
"The St Matthew Passion is a sacred oratorio from the Passions written by Johann Sebastian Bach in 1727 for solo voices, double choir and double orchestra.  It sets chapters 26 and 27 of the Gospel of Matthew (in the German translation of Martin Luther) to music, with interspersed chorales and arias. It is widely regarded as one of the masterpieces of classical sacred music. Although Bach wrote four (or five) settings of the Passions only two have survived; the other is the St John Passion.

The St Matthew Passion was probably first performed on Good Friday (11 April) 1727[1] in the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, where Bach was the Kantor of the School and Directoris Chori musici of Leipzig."

RSCM Voice for Life is now ONLINE!

Hugh Morris, Director of the RSCM has asked everyone to share his recent letter widely. Part of it is included below:-

Do head over to the RSCM website, there are many resources for all - choristers, choral scholars, older choir members, sacred music enthusiasts.... It's wonderful to see all the opportunities springing up during these difficult times.

Pergolesi's "Stabat Mater"

Pergolesi's "Stabat Mater" is a musical setting of a latin hymn which consists of twenty couplets which describe the Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin at the Cross. There are more than sixty English translations that have been made of the Stabat Mater, Stabat Mater being the title of a thirteenth-century Latin hymn meaning "the Mother was standing."

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi composed what was to become one of his most celebrated choral works in the final weeks of his life in 1736 when suffering from tuberculosis. It was commissioned for a Neapolitan confraternity, who also asked Alessandro Scarlatti to compose a Stabat Mater. The work is divided into twelve movements, each named after the incipit of the text. There is more here on Wikipedia.

Pergolesi was in fact a nickname, his real name being Giovanni Battista Draghi but since his ancestors came from Pergola he was given the nickname. There is more about him here.

It's a work of considerable length but our choristers performed this last Easter both on tour and in our church in Ipswich. It's a beautiful work which they really connected with. I have fond memories of listening to them sing it. The Stabat Mater is available to download on Choral Wiki here. You can download the PDF and sing along with recordings on Spotify or Youtube (see below), or search for a YouTube recording which also displays the score - there are some.




Tip : some of the works listed on Choral Wiki have a midi file to help you learn the top line. An excellent piece of software called Sibelius is available for free to students which can open and play these files. 

Our choir recorded the first movement for Good Friday - below

Palestrina - Missa aeternae Christi munera

Something different today - a Palestrina mass.

Our church choir were due to sing this on Sunday, the Ladies and Soprano Choral Scholars singing the top section. We have an awesome group of Sop. Choral Scholars (actually ALL our Choral Scholars are awesome!) who juggle increasing demands at school and continue to sing services. Many are currently reeling from the cancellation of public exams with their futures put on hold, but I know they will all rise to the challenge.

One of the tricky things about being a choral scholar at St. Mary le Tower is the sudden leap into a new set of music, much of which we Ladies and Gents know well. This Palestrina mass is a good example - they rock up and rehearse once and then join us in the service. I therefore thought it would be good to feature a "stock item" from our repertoire just for them, after all they would have been singing it on Sunday anyway!

Let All the World in E'vry Corner Sing

A difficult 24 hours for us here. My eighteen year old is really unwell with COVID-19 and we are praying his improvement today is sustained. he's showing signs of early stage pneumonia but is in relatively good spirits compared to last night. We are so grateful for the prayers and support from all our friends and having this Blog as a distraction is going to be a blessing over the weeks to come.

So today I'm just going to share this Facebook post from @OrganistWilliam who played my request in Bury Cathedral yesterday.

Let All the World in E'vry Corner Sing - I can't wait until it does once again. Stay well friends.

Adrian Batten c.1591-c.1637

So today I was supposed to be singing Evensong in Cranford, Heathrow. Amongst other music we were due to sing Batten's Fourth Service, which most of us know. Adrian Batten is a really interesting composer, not least because of his dedication to preserving the works of his contemporaries, whilst much of his own is sadly lost. I felt he was an excellent example of working for the common good which so many people are currently dedicating themselves to during this difficult time.

Adrian Batten was Organist and Vicar-Choral of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul's, London between the Reformation and the Civil War in the 1640s. As an Anglican church composer he was active during an important period of English church music which saw the birth of the "verse anthem" where music was predominantly in English.

Biography
Batten was born in Salisbury, and was a chorister and then organ scholar at Winchester Cathedral. Batten remained with the cathedral choir after his voice had changed, as evidenced by graffiti carved into the wall of Bishop Gardiner's chantry that reads "Adrian Battin: 1608". (Don't get any ideas Choral Scholars!!) In 1614, he moved to London to become a Vicar Choral of Westminster Abbey, and was apparently still at Westminster in 1625; The Lord Chamberlain's Records for 1625 show that at the funeral of James I (at which Orlando Gibbons was organist and master of the music) Batten is described as a "singingman of Westminster".

Mothering Sunday

Mothering Sunday has been celebrated on the fourth Sunday in Lent in the UK and Ireland since the 16th century. People returned to their "mother church" for a service which was held on Laetare Sunday - Laetare Sunday is exactly 21 days before Easter Sunday, a moveable feast based on the cycles of the moon. The earliest occurrence of Laetare Sunday in the twenty-first century was on 2 March 2008 and the latest will be on 4 April 2038. Your "mother church" was either the church where you were baptised or the nearest cathedral (the latter being the mother church of all the parish churches in a diocese). Anyone who did this was commonly said to have gone "a-mothering".

Mothering Sunday became a day when domestic servants were given a day off to visit their mother church, usually with their own mothers and other family members. Those who were in service were given a day off so they could visit their families, and the children often picked wildflowers along the way either to place in the church or to give to their mothers. 

The day is also referred to sometimes as Mid-Lent Sunday or Refreshment Sunday and seen as a day when the austerity of Lent is temporarily put aside. Clergy wear rose robes in some churches as in Advent, when Refreshment Sunday is known as Gaudete Sunday. (Gaudete means "rejoice".) Both days provide a break from the penitential nature of the season and signify the nearness of the Lord's coming.

Mothering Sunday is sometimes known as "Simnel Sunday", in addition to the cake's association with Easter.  Simnel cakes celebrate the reuniting of the family, as does the the custom of "clipping the church" where the congregation join hands and circle the church. (Not something we are able to do currently!)

In my copy of "Sunday by Sunday" from the RSCM, the comment for Sunday 22nd March says 
"It is very often hard to accept that the triumph of good is never plain sailing" and that we should "pray for the grace to share Mary's pain and suffering for the good of all". This seemed quite pertinent with all that is currently playing out around us; as mothers and as children of God we should trust and struggle together for the ultimate good of all.

On to the music!

If you fancy singing something appropriate there are numerous options - indeed any Magnificat would be ideal! My current favourite is Howells in G, one of his early settings and less well known. Listen here on Youtube. (More on Howells another day, you all know he's a favourite of mine!!)


You can download the music as a PDF here on Choral Wiki and sing along! (Perhaps a setting for next year if we all learn it?!)

Other options are Rutter's "For the Beauty of the Earth" - praising Mother Earth. Another favourite of mine! Listen to it here  . Remember the earth and the world outside is still accessible to us. I suspect we might just come to appreciate it a little more over the coming few months. If you are not currently in isolation the National Trust have opened all their parks and gardens for free.

If you don't have Spotify Premium or prefer a CD them this album is available here on Amazon. (Just make sure you select the right option for you as the default is streaming.)

One hymn for this Sunday which leapt off the page was "Let all the world in every corner sing". In the light of current restrictions on movement and interaction, we mustn't stop singing, music is what keeps so many people going and singing is powerful medicine. Music is such a fundamentally joyous part of worship and is so good for the soul. It is praise in its purest form. Please do check out some of the links on the home page for online singing groups, sing along on Spotify or YouTube - do keep singing!

Stay well everyone, look after your mental as well as your physical health. Below is a prayer released by the Church of England for Mothering Sunday:-

Hello!

During this unprecedented period of closure during the COVID-19 Pandemic most of us are feeling rather lost and apprehensive. I am devastated to learn that it is likely to be some time before we able to rehearse, worship and share Anglican sacred music together and wanted to provide a platform to share links to online activities and choirs, recordings, downloadable manuscripts and information to support - and perhaps entertain! - fellow sacred music lovers. I am by no means claiming to be expert at anything - indeed it's YEARS since I built and regularly ran blogs and websites.... but it's something to do, and I admit this is also an anxiety management tool for me.
Enjoy!